You Want to Move Up in Life, Drop Greed.

I remember reading a moving story from God's little devotional book on success about a young man called Armstrong. At 16 Armstrong Williams was just beginning to drive and like every other teenager, jumps at every errand that involves accomplishing with the family car. One day, he was sent to the store by his father to buy wire and fencing for their farm. This of course involves him using the family pickup. He quickly jumped at it. Though Armstrong enjoys going on such errand, on this particular day his spirit were dampened. His father had told him to get goods on credit. To Armstrong, the consequence of getting the goods on credit had killed the joy of zooming off in the family pickup.
Armstrong had in the time past seen the treatment handed to his black friends when they asked for credit from any of the shops. The shop owners will always question the credit worthiness of such request. But as it stands Armstrong had no choice but to obey his father.
He went to the shop, collected the goods and cautiously requested for credit. "I need to put this on credit" he said. The owner of the shop standing next to him gave him an amused, cynical look, yet his face didn't change. "Sure," he said easily. "Your daddy is always good for it." Then he turned to a friend standing next to him and declared. "This here is one of James Williams' son." The friend nodded in agreement and young Armstrong was filled with pride.
Just the three words did the magic. It had opened a door to an adult's respect. Those words James Williams' son was all he needed. Dear reader, will it be possible for people to make such references to your kids tomorrow? Will generations unborn be proud to be associated with your name?
Most of us today are so greedy of material things that we can do anything to acquire them without any effort to think about tomorrow. Greed comes out of poor self-esteem, which manifests itself as false pride, pretense or keeping up with the neighbors. The way out of greed is to learn to live within your means and be satisfied. Being contended dose not mean lacking ambition.
Becoming rich and famous dose not guarantee a good name. If it did, some multimillionaires would not be where they are today. Obviously, it is time we come to terms with the fact that a good name carries with the fact that a good name carries with it a lot.